DISCOVERY 



H5 



TYPICAL ANTARCTIC SCENERY. 

 Note the absence of bare rock except on slopes. Robertson Bay, South Victoria I^nd. 



get closer than about five miles — and placing a land 

 station from which land journeys might be undertaken. 

 On the other hand, a ship in an open season might run 

 in the coast much more cheaply and rapidly than any 

 land party could hope to do. 



There is another direction for land journeys which 

 has not been followed since it was pioneered by Nor- 

 denskiold in 1902, and which offers a fair route for a 



south along this route is being made this year by a 

 small British party, who are being landed on the 

 northern end of Graham Land by the Norwegian 

 whalers who constantly hunt in these seas. 



The most important geographical problem of the 

 South is the nature of the connection, if any, between 

 Graham Land and the rest of the Antarctic continent ; 

 but there are many others of minor interest, such as 



long journey down the western side of the Weddell 

 Sea. The coast is there flanked by a thick permanent 

 sheet of ice which gives a good surface for travelling, 

 and Nordenskiold had to turn back even before he had 

 reached the Antarctic circle. An attempt to get well 



the limits of the high plateau, the direction of slope 

 and consequent movement of the ice sheet over it, 

 the existence and trend of mountain ranges. It is, 

 for instance, not impossible, though highly improbable, 

 that there may be ranges of mountains comparable 



